What does worshiping the Lord through our work mean?

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Transcript

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so what does worshipping the lord through our work mean so first I will tell what it does not mean some people say that the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita is work is worship nowhere does the Bhagavad Gita say this what it says is worship him through your work it doesn’t say there is no where in the Bhagavad Gita it says this now work is worship as an ethical saying to inspire people to give respect to all work to inspire dignity of labour for that purpose work as worship is a good principle but it is not a spiritual principle if work were itself worship then a thief may say I am robbing a bank, that’s my worship that’s my work will that be worship now work in and of itself is not worship if work were worship then the donkey would become the greatest worshipper no, work itself is not worship but work can be made into worship and how does that happen that happens primarily by our intention and our contribution our intention means that sometimes people have a very segregated conception of God that means God is somewhere up there and I am here but the Bhagavad Gita reveals an inclusivist conception of God God is not just up there everything that is there around us it ultimately comes from God it is God’s energy so the process of devotion we may think of it as some religious ritual, going to a temple chanting some mantras, going down before some images those are important but the essence of devotion is the vision that everything comes from the source and everything should be returned to the source so whatever abilities we have they are coming from God and they should be returned to the source that means they should be used in the service of God so in that sense devotion completes the cosmic cycle of things coming from the source being returned by our intention to the source so when we understand that whatever resources we have externally, whatever talents we have internally, they are from God and they are meant to be used in His service and this can be done in various ways so whatever we are specific profession, as long as it is an honourable profession we do that in an honourable way, in a mood of service intention internally is that I am not doing this for my gratification I am not doing this to prove my greatness to the world, I am doing this in a mood of service and contribution now this mood is not just something which is a matter of conception it requires purification no we need to have some time to make our work into worship we need to have some time which we devote to God exclusively so in the bhakti tradition, bhakti practitioners begin their day with what is called sadhana sadhana is spiritual practice meditation, prayer worship, direct acts of worship which connect our heart with God so once our heart is connected with God in devotion, then whatever we do, we will connect that also with God so that focused devotion provides us a foundation by which we can spiritualize our work we can infuse our work with a spiritual intention so we see our family members not just as our family members, in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says that when we acquire knowledge yaj jnatvanapunarmoham evam yasisipandava yena bhutanya sheshaani drakshasyaatman yathoma so once, oh Arjuna enlightened, you will not fall into illusion, rather you will see all living beings as connected with me so we have a vertical relationship with God and we have a horizontal relationship with others and we can get ultimate shelter in the vertical relationship so when the vertical relationship is not given due importance then we try to find in a horizontal relationship what is to be found only in the vertical relationship we try to find shelter, solace love, satisfaction lastingly in a horizontal relationship and that is not going to happen it is not because a particular person has problems, everyone has problems everyone has limitations but it is our misinformed expectation that is the fundamental problem so if our vertical relationship is strong, we are connected with God, then that gives us the strength and tolerance to deal with the ups and downs in our horizontal relationships because sometimes people may not live up to our expectations and if we are honest, we will admit that sometimes, many times actually we also don’t live up to other’s expectations so this is going to be there in a horizontal relationship we get the strength to deal with these ups and downs when we have a stable vertical relationship so when we have a stable vertical relationship, we see that all living beings, Krishna says are mine, so our family members are also Krishna’s family members we are all part of one universal spiritual family and when we have that vision then we can become more tolerant so by serving our family members seeing their connection with God, we can also serve God and that also infuses our professional work our attempts to earn a living they also can become spiritualized when we see our family members as spiritual, so this is all a matter of intention and this intention requires purification it is not just something I am doing whatever I am doing in a mode of worship we need to consciously spend some time connecting our consciousness with God sometimes when we tell people, please chant the names of God, they say, oh the names of God are going on 24 hours in my heart 24 hours I am chanting the names of God yes it could be but you know if something is going on 24 hours in the heart, why can’t it come out 5 minutes on the lips in which other relationship will we say, you know with our family, the husband he doesn’t do any work, just sits home watching TV all day and then his wife, children they are suffering and they say, oh darling I love you very much the husband comes back from office and the wife says, oh I love you where is my dinner, I love you where is my dinner, in which other relationship will we just accept only empty expressions without any actions the relationship requires emotion expression and action all three are there and the same applies to our relationship with God also if there is inner emotion there is verbal expression, we chant the names of God and there is physical action also we come to spiritual association of devotees we come to temples then the relationship is real otherwise it is just a fantasy the claim for devotion is quite often a fantasy so first is by intention, when there is purification then with that intention we can imbue a mood of service in our work and the second part is contribution, contribution means that when we understand Krishna actually goes different levels in the Bhagavad Gita from 12.8 onwards he gives different levels at which we can connect with him so 12.8 first he says is think of me, devote yourself to me in this way you will live in me even now and ultimately you will attain me then he says if we can’t do that in 12.9 he gives one level lower so you can’t naturally fix your mind on me so you can’t naturally fix your mind on me then practice sadhana bhakti strive to fix your mind on me focus and he says if you can’t even do that then he says so if you can’t even fix your mind on me oh this chanting is very difficult I can’t do it he says work for me that means do some seva if you come to a temple there are so many different services that we can do that is also one level we can connect with him and then he says if you can’t work for me also that if you can’t work for him then he says sacrifice the fruits of your work for me what is he going to do so he says that sacrifice the fruits of your work and just be self situated so charity is also one way we make our work into worship then what we have learnt a part of it we give for God then that also God is interested in our heart he wants our heart but presently our heart is caught in many things primarily often it is caught in money and the things that money can buy so although we may want God to be in our heart but there are many other things in our heart so if we can’t give our heart to God we can give what is in our heart to God so money is in our heart whenever we give money for something we take it quite seriously we get something free we buy something we take care of it so like that by giving what is in our heart to God we give God a place in our heart so in that way through our intention we purify ourselves by consistent devotional practice and through our contribution we give charity by that we can make our work into worship